By now you will have realized that a photograph is not just a static element or a flat image without history. If you stop before any image and analyze it, you will be surprised at the amount of information you will be able to extract from it. Information on compositional techniques: Have you used the rule of thirds? The law of the horizon? The law of the gaze? Has he broken the rules or was the author of the image simply unaware of them? What does the color tell you? And the absence of it?... As well as information about the type of photography: Documentary?, Landscape? Or the elements that appear in it.
We always talk about how important it is to look for inspiration in others, to look for images, to watch movies and pay attention to photography. But like everything, just looking is not enough, you have to learn to read the meaning of the elements that appear in the image as if it were a novel in order to get the most out of them.
One of the many elements you can find in photos is the vanishing point, which is used to add depth to images.
WHAT IS THE VANISHING POINT?
The vanishing point helps us to give depth to the image through real or imaginary lines that converge in an infinite point . You have seen the clearest example of a vanishing point thousands of times. It is a road or train tracks in a straight line, which as they move away seem to get closer until they converge. That precise moment in which the lines seem to cross is what we call the vanishing point .
However, they do not have to be just the “real” lines of existing lines in an image. Everything projects lines through its angles. Sometimes we will "see" them and other times we will only intuit them, but every element projects real or imaginary lines that allow us to create volume in the image.
If you want more information about the vanishing point and how to use it in your images, I recommend this article that explains it in detail.
And since the theory is very good, but what really interests us are the images that it leaves behind, we are going to see a few examples of photographs with vanishing points ?
1. THROUGH THE RHYTHM
This image not only generates a flight through the lines of the floor, but also through the repetition of the arches, what we know as visual rhythm and that it uses to generate depth.
2. THROUGH THE LINES
In this image you can see how the lines generate the idea of depth and vanishing in the bridge. Through the mist that insinuates but does not teach, he achieves a suggestive and mysterious image, where we do not see the escape of the lines but we intuit it.
3. NOT ALL LINES ARE STRAIGHT
4. GET DOWN (AND GET DOWN AGAIN ? )
A lower point of view than usual will accentuate the leakage of your lines.
5. VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE LINES
If you take advantage of the direction of the lines of your image, whether visible or invisible, to indicate the path that the viewer must take towards a (vanishing) point, your image will gain more strength.
6. DEPTH
See how the lines that lead us to the vanishing point and the different planes make this image clearly three-dimensional to our eyes.
7. VANISHING POINT OUTSIDE THE FRAME
To feed the imagination of admirers of your image. So, if they want to follow the narrative of your story, they will have to do something on their part, because to complete the picture they will need to step outside of it.
8.»TONAL FUGUE» AND DEPTH
The strings of this New York bridge are what stand out the most, creating a clear and marked escape towards the bottom of the image. However, also the different tones of the image created by the proximity and/or distance with respect to us, create a sensation of depth in the image.
9. ARCHITECTURE
In architecture it is where you will find lines and vanishing points in a simpler or more evident way.
10. COMMON ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS
Not everything is buildings in architecture ?
11. VANISHING POINT PHOTOS FOR NATURE LOVERS
Luckily for nature lovers, landscapes are also full of lines, and therefore leaks ? .
12. ANGLED POINT OF VIEW
Varying the point of view will provide you with interesting leaks like the ones achieved in the following image by taking a low angle view of the tree trunks and their crowns.
13. CHOPPY POINT OF VIEW
Another way to accentuate the perspective and the vanishing of the lines is to use a chopped point of view (from top to bottom).
14. VANISHING POINT PHOTOS WITH GEOMETRY AND ABSTRACTION
If you are looking for more abstract and interpretive images, the use of lines and vanishing points can help you express your ideas.
15. ADD INTEREST AND ENHANCE YOUR IMAGE
Without the vanishing point it would be a photo without much interest, but the combination of elements (The bird, the lines of the bridge, the horizon line...) makes the image much more interesting.
16. HUMAN ELEMENT IN VANISHING POINT PHOTOS
Sometimes a vanishing point alone may not be interesting enough to "justify" your image. Try to include a human or animal element in the frame, you will see how the interest of your composition increases.
AND FINALLY…:
17. WEEKLY CHALLENGE 59: THE VANISHING POINT.
Yes, we also had this fantastic challenge. You can be inspired by viewing all the selected images here.
If you have ever thought that you knew everything about something, I am convinced that in photography that thought will not cross your mind. Luckily, it is impossible to get bored with this visual art because there is always, always, something new to learn ? If you did not know or had not delved into the use of lines or vanishing points in your compositions, now you have one more element with which to enrich your images and your photographic imagination.
